ANALYSIS: Labor's shadow treasurer, Ben Wyatt, says the Federal Government wouldn't dare deprive WA of the $1.2 billion which will be freed up if his party wins Saturday's election and abandons the Roe 8 highway project.
ANALYSIS: Labor's shadow treasurer, Ben Wyatt, says the Federal Government wouldn't dare deprive WA of the $1.2 billion which will be freed up if his party wins Saturday's election and abandons the Roe 8 highway project.
Labor is strongly favoured to end Colin Barnett's hopes of becoming the first premier to win a third four year term. But it needs to gain 10 seats with a uniform swing of 10 per cent.
Mr Wyatt warned that if Canberra withdrew the money earmarked for the Perth Freight Link work, it would produce a backlash against federal Liberal MPs from WA at the next federal election.
'The Federal Government will not take it from WA because they don't want to lose Christian Porter as a member,' he said.
Mr Porter, who is the Minister for Social Services, holds the federal seat of Pearce by a margin of just 3.6 per cent. He is being talked of as a future Liberal leader.
Federal Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has said that the if the freight link project is abandoned, Canberra, and not the state government, will decide what happens to the money.
Mr Wyatt is relying on the reallocation of the funds to other Labor projects to help the party achieve its target of a budget surplus by 2019-20, although the party's costings predict state debt to remain at almost $40 billion.
The Liberals are relying on the sale of 51 per cent of Western Power to yield $11 billion They are also promising a budget surplus in 2019-20, but calculate debt dropping to $28.8 billion by 2020.
Death threats, and what borders on intimidation towards a contractor by a Labor frontbencher, have injected life into the final days of a disappointing election campaign which failed to shed light on key issues. In fact electors are still in the dark on several critical policies.
And to add spice to the campaign finale there has been a spectacular falling out between Mr Barnett and Nationals leader Brendon Grylls over Liberal plans to divert Royalties for Regions money into mainstream country projects such as roads, should the government be returned.
But Labor is also proposing to raid the royalties revenue stream for capital projects over the next three years.
Whichever side wins, the Royalties for Regions strategy will become a major battleground in recognition of the parlous condition of the state's finances.
And federal MPs, including Mr Porter, will know that the trends will be crucial when their day of reckoning occurs. The next federal poll is due in 2019, but it could well be earlier.
